We got out of Midland about 8:30 after a quick cold cereal breakfast and a review of tire pressure.
Bonnie Morrell (our host for the night) had e-mailed directions about how to get around Dallas. There is much construction going on. Bonnie and Chuck live near a lake northeast of Dallas in the suburb of Rowlett. It is hard to imagine a lake driving through all this sand and scrub.
About Bonnie and Chuck: We met them when Bonnie came to Good Shepherd to be our deacon. We became good friends sharing dinners and church projects. Bonnie invited me to be a part of her leadership team for the annual women's retreat and my career as a retreat director was born. She taught me so much with Kat Olgetree as art facilitator so when they moved to Texas, Kat and I were able to take over leadership of the annual women's retreat and continue the Good Shepherd tradition.
A little ways outside of Big Spring we spy some table top mountains stretching across the horizon. this is a change from the monotonous flat land of yesterday. We begin to see more and more green trees but the land and grass is still dry and brown.
Last night Yvonne looked up Abilene on the internet to see what we could visit. She found a museum called "Frontier Texas" That covered the frontier years of 1780 to 1880. We decided to stop and take a look. As we drove into Abilene on the "old road" through the light industry part of town we passed a hand written sign on top of a pile of wood announcing "Farwood 4 sale". We laughed for blocks. Let’s hear it for phonics education.
The museum was an interactive, holographic journey, with video stories and lots of hands on exhibits. It was very well done and a little reminiscent of the Steinbeck Center in style. It took a little over an hour to go through the Museum. So it was time for lunch. We asked for a Texas BBQ place and were sent to Sharon's BBQ.
We walked into a cement block building, linoleum floor, and cafeteria style buffet. Stanley had Sharon’s Special, a BBQ brisket sandwich with sauce and his choice of veggies. Yvonne had a BBQ chicken sandwich and a green salad. Surprisingly there was a VEGGIE option on the menu (a big sign on the wall). When I asked about it they said it was my choice of the salad and veggie buffet. I could choose from coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, cooked green beans, corn casserole and green salad. YIKES!!!!!! I decided the chicken would be better for my body.
The place was full of locals with farmers and folks, a couple of military guys and us. We were really out of place but the food was great and it was fun to be there.
Back on the road we drove on towards Dallas. The drive was uneventful until we reached Fort Worth/Dallas where the traffic went crazy. It took us an hour for us to get through the two cities down town systems. The northeast of Dallas we ran into freeway construction, detours, and single lane roads. We finally pulled into Bonnie and Chuck’s only getting a little lost along the way.
Bonnie had a great bottle of wine chilled for us (Mad House Wife) and we sat down to catch up. Chuck had just returned from a dialysis treatment and was a little tired. But they took us to their favorite Tex Mex Restaurant which we thoroughly enjoyed. After dinner and back at the house, Chuck headed for an early bed and we sat up with Bonnie for conversation and laughter. She asked for updates on many of you and we filled her in as best as we could.
Tomorrow we will go to church with her, St. David’s in Garland TX, and then head to Louisiana.
No comments:
Post a Comment